The plague-doctor walked off to the kitchen, humming - chirping? cawing? - a song. Areus made a purring sound. “He’s been a visitor for a long, long time. A friendly guy, isn’t he? Very helpful.”

“But why does he look like a plague-doctor”, Fel complained under his breath. The imagery of that guy cooking was too weird.

Areus snickered. “Does he look like a plague-doctor? Or do they look like him?”

… Now he wanted to think about it even less.

It didn’t take too long for Urulu to cook him half a feast. The scent alone made Fel drool and let his stomach complain loudly. It was a bit too much for one person, but he preferred that over too little right now. He hurried to sit down at the table and dug in as soon as Urulu waved a hand to show he didn’t mind him starting. It tasted even better than it looked and smelled.

While he ate, Fel tried to go through things again. “So… If I want the mansion, I have to work here, correct?”

“Correct. If you don’t do your work, it will need another owner. If that happens, not wanting to leave won’t be a choice anymore. You’ll simply be thrown out.” Areus licked up frighteningly blue water from a little bowl on the table. His fur was shining softly whenever he swallowed another gulp.

“And if I don’t want to stay here permanently, I have to convince the Gatekeeper. The issue is that he’s mad and I don’t even know about what.” Fel munched on some noodles and twirled his fork in the air as he spoke.

Urulu’s head tilted. “Well…”

“What is it?”

“It’s nothing. Maybe you can try talking to him again?”

The pause made Fel frown but he decided not to pry. Sitting in front of Urulu and Areus, he was reminded of talking to his boss. They were conversing amicably, but there was no denying a distinct difference in status and power. Let alone the fact that he did not know how quickly he would cross a line and reading facial expressions was impossible if one was a cat and one looked like he was wearing a mask. “Fine.”

After eating, Fel went back to bed. Knowing he would have to stay up all night again and unwilling to drink some unknown potions, he preferred resting in advance. As it turned out, it was indeed better that way.

“But I want that room”, a guest complained in a voice with a heavy accent. It clearly didn’t come from human vocal cords, making the words sound distorted. Imitated rather than truly spoken.

Fel wondered if it was visible how much he was sweating. The guest before him was twice his size and similar to a Lamia; a female torso on a long snake body. Her slit tongue appeared between her sharp fangs as she talked, dangerously licking over her human lips. Her large scales were shining under the lamps and the tip of her long tail kept on curling and uncurling.

“A guest already checked into that room yesterday”, Fel uncomfortably tried to explain. He glanced to his right, where the sign at the door made it clear the room was in use. Because each of them had their own style though, this new guest insisted on getting this room.

“I   Want  It”, the Lamia hissed again, punctuating every word. She was leaning in closer and closer. She was even more beautiful up close, but it was a kind of beauty that could literally swallow you up in one bite and he truly didn't want to get acquainted with her fangs, either. Or find out if they were poisonous. Shivering, Fel retreated a step.

Why did this have to happen! Didn’t the cat say he was safe?!

Right! The cat!

Whipping his head around, the tall man shot a desperate look at the nearby cat with huge, watery eyes. The only thing left would have been a pair of drooping ears to complete the image.

“Whose place is this?”, Areus responded without worry as he continued grooming himself.

Sucking in a breath, Fel forced a smile and straightened his back. He folded his hands behind his back to hide their quivering. What an answer. But Areus was right, he had to do this. “That, uh, dear guest… This room is in use. If-If you aren’t willing t-to take another room… I must ask you to leave…”

The house fell quiet.

It was unusual, Fel noticed now that it happened. Even as he had originally come here it wasn’t as silent as it was now. It wasn’t simply that there was no sound from the other guests anymore, no, it seemed like another sound was missing now. Something so subtle he hadn’t noticed it before.

The face of the Lamia distorted. She hissed once at him but ultimately lowered her raised body and arrogantly looked to the side. “Very well. Show me another room.”

Fel exhaled a breath he hadn’t been aware he had held. A drop of sweat slipped down his neck, vanishing behind his uniform.

“Yes, please come this way. That room is the most similar to the one you wanted”, he croaked out, keeping his smile plastered to his face.

Once the door closed behind the guest, a sign appearing on the wood, Fel leaned against the wall and wheezed. “You said there’d only be friendly guests coming today!”

“She is friendly”, Areus commented. “She is very tolerant of mistakes, even. The only thing that made her grumpy was the room being used, so she wanted to test you and see if you were enough of a pushover to get it. No matter who comes here, Fel, always remember that: You are the owner of this place. If it’s within reason, you can throw anyone out. This wasn’t about a mistake you made, this was her being unreasonable. You had all right to reject her request.”

“What would have happened if she hadn't accepted it?!”

“This house does not allow anyone to disobey its owner.” Areus rubbed his face against the wall. “And the better it likes its owner, the quicker it will react. As far as I can tell, it likes you a lot.”

The man hid his face in his hands and groaned. He wasn't even going to ask more about that right now. That would wait for later.

“I wanna go home…”

***

On the whole way back in the car, Fel found his face stuck in an emotionless expression. He was too exhausted to even try and show anything on his face. He had never thought he’d be so happy to sit down in his car to drive for hours, but the thought of returning to the normal world was blindingly beautiful.

When Nina saw him like that, she opened her mouth to ask but had no time to react before Fel hugged her in greeting. He put his weight on her shoulder with a long, slow sigh.

Fel felt her small hand pat his back. “Just a weekend and you’re so exhausted? Did you not sleep well?”

“A weekend, huh”, Fel mumbled incoherently. So much had happened during a single weekend. Was it really not a year? It felt like it. He groaned and straightened his back again, looking down at the smaller Nina with her brown locks and soft green-brown eyes. Coincidentally, she looked similar enough to him that they could be blood-related, even though she was merely his step-sister.

“Go in?”, she suggested kindly, smiling at him.

The young man nodded quickly. His home was as much a home as it had been before he moved out. Fel’s father never closed up his old room despite Fel being out of the house for several years already. Nina had her own room, too. His father liked leaving things the way they were.

Only Fel’s birthmother was completely missing inside the house.

With a creak, the front door opened farther and a meek-looking woman peeked out. When she spotted Fel she smiled and stepped out but kept to the door.

“Welcome back”, she carefully called out.

Fel turned to her and forced a smile. “I’m back.”

He found it a bit hard to respond and she knew, but she looked happy at his greeting. Her eyes were shining as she waved him inside.

Fel had no trouble accepting Nina as his sister.

It went to the point that he did not even care for her washed underwear hanging next to his or if she walked around in her very short summer loungewear. There was no desire; she was more a female in his eyes than a woman.

Nina was indeed his sister, even if not by blood.

But he could not call Arianna his mother. She never asked for it though, and neither did his father.

Mothers were a concept too foreign for Fel. Due to his friends, he knew what one was supposed to be like, but that was about the limit of his understanding. To him, a mother was a scarily screeching figure with a high, painful pitch. A ‘something’ that made his father sad and destroyed his home.

She never hit him, but her outbursts had almost immediately erased any growing bond between them.

She would throw things into all directions - sometimes towards him, often on the ground. It would range from books over irons to bottles, whatever she could grab.

Oftentimes she would not even notice his presence and focus all of her shrieks on his father.

By the time Fel was seven, he found himself unable to lift his head in his supposed mother’s presence. He kept his sight lowered, always on the ground, only talking when he was alone with his father.

It was a fear deeply rooted inside of his head. Not one of being hurt physically, but of having his happiness destroyed.

Owl

Did I mention? I have two variants: Super intact supportive family and wow-those-are-issues family.